Florida gave multifamily property owners a defense in 2023, and most owners still do not know they qualify for it — or that they do not.

Under Fla. Stat. §768.0706, an owner of a multifamily residential property gains a presumption against liability in negligent security claims arising from criminal acts by third parties, provided the property has implemented a specified list of security measures. The list generally includes a security camera system covering entry and exit points, lighted parking lots and walkways, deadbolts on dwelling unit doors, locking devices on windows and sliding doors, peepholes, locked gates at pool areas, a documented crime prevention assessment, and key management and staff training procedures.

Owners who comply have a real defense. Owners who do not now face a plaintiff pointing at a statutory checklist the property failed to meet.

Confirm current requirements and compliance deadlines with qualified counsel, because the provisions phased in and the details matter. But the strategic point stands: for a Florida apartment owner, security compliance is now connected to both litigation exposure and insurability, and carriers have noticed.

Assault and Battery Is the Endorsement That Decides These Claims

The statute is one half. The policy language is the other.

A negligent security claim alleges inadequate lighting, insufficient cameras, poor access control, or failure to respond to known problems. Those are ordinary negligence theories — and a broadly worded assault and battery exclusion bars claims arising out of assault or battery, which sweeps in every one of them even though the owner did nothing intentional.

Three ways it appears: covered in full, sublimited well below the general liability limit, or excluded outright with no duty to defend.

For a habitational account this provision matters more than the liability limit printed on the proposal, and an umbrella does not repair it — if assault and battery is excluded underneath, more excess limit does not reach it.

More on assault and battery coverage.

Habitational Is a Hard Class, and the Market Reflects It

Standard markets have narrowed their appetite for Florida multifamily, and the reasons are structural: wind exposure, aging inventory, water losses, and liability severity.

What determines whether a property gets quoted:

Roof age, which functions as a threshold rather than a rating factor. A property past a carrier’s limit gets declined, and each decline shortens the list.

Building systems. Electrical, plumbing, and HVAC condition — and for older South Florida buildings, whether the cast iron plumbing has been replaced. Cast iron corrodes from the inside, fails without warning, and produces losses that reach multiple units at once.

Documentation. A property arriving with permits and invoices for roof, repipe, electrical, and window work prices differently than the same property whose owner says the systems seem fine. Carriers price uncertainty.

Loss history, weighted toward severity.

The practical consequence: capital planning and insurability are the same activity. Replacing a roof before it becomes uninsurable buys market access along with the improvement.

Loss of Rents, and the Two Things That Undersize It

For a habitational owner the income coverage is loss of rents.

The limit should reflect the current rent roll. Properties that have re-tenanted at higher rents, added units, or completed renovations are frequently insured against an outdated figure.

The period of restoration has to account for what rebuilding actually takes in Florida — adjustment, permitting, contractor availability when every owner in the county is hiring the same trades, and re-leasing units after the work is done.

And the extensions, which cover closures involving no damage to your property: utility service interruption when power fails off the premises, and civil authority when a government order restricts access. After a storm, a property can be intact and uninhabitable, and the base form does not respond to that.

Water Is the Most Frequent Large Loss

Not wind. Water, and usually from inside a unit.

A supply line, a water heater, a washing machine hose, an HVAC condensate line. In a stacked building the water reaches the units below, the common areas, and the building systems before anyone reports it.

Two coverage points. Gradual damage is excluded — seepage developing over months is maintenance rather than a sudden accidental discharge, and carriers examine which it was. And mold is typically sublimited even where the underlying water damage is covered.

Owners reduce this materially through supply line replacement programs, water heater age policies, leak detection, and automatic shutoff requirements in lease terms.

The Deductible Is a Percentage, and It Applies Per Building

The named storm deductible on a Florida commercial property policy is a percentage of insured value rather than a flat amount.

Convert it to dollars. Then confirm whether it applies per building or per occurrence, because on a garden-style community with eight buildings the difference is enormous — one storm can produce eight deductibles.

Flood is excluded from every property policy and requires separate placement. For ground-floor units, at-grade mechanical equipment, and parking areas, that is the largest single gap.

Valuation, Coinsurance, and Rebuilding to Code

The building limit should reflect replacement cost at current construction prices, not market value or purchase price.

Where the policy carries a coinsurance requirement, insuring below the required percentage reduces payment on partial losses, not only total ones — so an outdated limit costs money on ordinary claims. Agreed value removes that requirement and is worth asking about specifically.

Ordinance or law matters for older properties, where a substantial loss can trigger current wind, electrical, fire, and accessibility requirements. The coverage has three parts — the undamaged portion that must be demolished, the demolition itself, and the increased cost of construction — and many policies carry the first with little of the other two.

Note that milestone inspection and structural integrity reserve study requirements apply to condominium and cooperative buildings rather than to conventionally owned apartment buildings. If you own a converted property or a mixed structure, that distinction is worth confirming.

Screening, Pets, and Pools

Three operational exposures that drive habitational liability claims.

Tenant screening. A documented, consistently applied process matters both for loss prevention and for defending a negligent-leasing allegation. Applied inconsistently, it creates its own exposure under fair housing law.

Dogs. Florida holds owners liable for bites regardless of the animal’s history, and a landlord who knew of a dangerous animal and permitted it can be drawn in. Breed restrictions in leases are common; carriers ask about them, and enforcement matters more than the policy language.

Pools and amenities. Pools carry the highest claim severity in habitational, and Florida regulates public pools at residential properties — safety equipment, signage, drain covers, and access control. A pool residents can reach at two in the morning is a different risk from one that locks. Fitness centers, playgrounds, and dog parks each add their own.

On-Site Staff and Vendors

Workers’ compensation for maintenance technicians, leasing agents, groundskeepers, and office staff. Payroll separation matters — administrative staff may qualify for a lower classification than maintenance, but only where the records support it.

Hired and non-owned auto, for maintenance staff running to a supply house in a personal vehicle. This is present on fewer habitational policies than it should be.

Employment practices liability, since hiring, discipline, and termination generate claims at apartment communities the same as anywhere.

Vendor certificates, collected before work begins and tracked for expiration, with the owner named as additional insured by endorsement rather than only on a certificate. A vendor injured on site can name the owner and the manager directly regardless of the agreement.

Cyber Is Not Optional for a Property Collecting Rent Online

Property management platforms, online rent payment, electronic access systems, resident portals, and surveillance all sit on networks and hold resident financial and personal data.

Cyber liability covers breach response, notification, and forensics. Social engineering fraud — someone impersonating an owner, a manager, or a vendor to redirect a payment — is frequently a separate endorsement, and property management operations move a great deal of money.

Worth Confirming on Your Program

• Does the property meet Florida’s statutory multifamily security requirements?

• Is assault and battery covered, sublimited, or excluded — and do defense costs erode it?

• What is the named storm deductible in dollars, and does it apply per building?

• Is flood placed separately?

• Does the building limit reflect current replacement cost, and is there a coinsurance requirement?

• Do you carry ordinance or law, and which parts?

• Is loss of rents sized against the current rent roll, with utility and civil authority extensions?

• Is water damage sublimited?

• Is hired and non-owned auto in place for maintenance staff?

• Are vendor certificates and endorsements current?

Apartment Building and Habitational Insurance in Florida

Prestige Insurance Group works with apartment owners, habitational investors, real estate investment groups, and property management companies across Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Kendall, Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Stuart, Orlando, Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Jacksonville — from single buildings to multi-property portfolios.

Habitational is a class where the difference between a placeable risk and a declined one is usually documentation rather than condition. The useful review starts with the security file, the capital improvement records, and the loss runs.

Miami 305-969-8776 · Orlando 407-993-2331 · Stuart 772-247-3788

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Related Coverage

Commercial Property · General Liability · Assault and Battery · Commercial Hurricane · Commercial Flood · Business Interruption · Workers’ Compensation · Employment Practices Liability · Cyber Liability · Crime Insurance · Commercial Umbrella · Builders Risk

Related property types: Property Manager Insurance · Condo Building Insurance · HOA Insurance · Landlord and Rental Property Insurance · Lessor’s Risk Insurance

General information only, not legal advice. Florida statutory provisions regarding multifamily security and premises liability, along with policy forms and carrier requirements, vary and change. Consult qualified counsel regarding your obligations and refer to your policy for the terms that apply to your property.